In my club recently this has been a problem, with the recenct sucess of churchtown fc in the fermanagh in western in regards to being promoted and reaching the Mulhern cup semi final tonight this problem has been brought to the fore once more with 2 players being suspended for the rest of the season for playing soccer. Now in castlederg there are 5 local soccer teams with players from the GAA club also being playing members of at least 3 of those soccer clubs. But it seems within my GAA club it is ok to be a playing member of spamount swifts or Barrowfield rovers but not of the more succesful club Churchtown FC which by the way Has playing members from the Castlederg, Aghyaran, Dregish and Urney clubs respectivly. Where as the other 2 clubs are made up of players only invoved with the Castlederg GAA club or the Dregish club. Now personally myself i am friendly with the 2 players in question and am a member of the Churchtown club aswell, i dont feel it is correct for anyone from a GAA club to tell a person or persons what other clubs or sport they should be allowed to participate in. And if the GAA club is going to ban players for playing soccer, why ban players from churchtown and not the other 2 clubs. Now the 2 players in question didnt play in the castlederg vs clogher game as churchtown also had a 1st division game on the same night against ardstraw a game which they needed to win to cement their place in division 1 and also with a cup semi final in the midst these players wanted to keep their place in the churchtown squad. To ban them for a whole year is EXTREME to say the very least and in a club like castlederg they really cant afford to ban 2 of their best players. Have any other clubs within the county experienced the same problems or what are your views on the subject of soccer vs gaelic??? Yours in SPORT dergboi

dergboi (Tyrone) - Posts: 373 - 23/04/2009 08:30:48    265899

Clonoe had that problem a few years ago when Morrision was there, dropped a few of their lads....
Fintona aswell have had problems.
Personally if i was a manager I wouldnt have a problem with any of my players playing soccer or whatever sport, on the warm summers days ahead its better them lads go and play soccer than go out and get full on the friday night or saturday - saturday night....

GetOverTheBar (Tyrone) - Posts: 1388 - 23/04/2009 11:26:13    266054

Dergboi, if I was manager of my local club and 2 of the best players went to play soccer instead of turning up for a league game, I would not play them again, let alone a 1 year ban.
The GAA is all about community and friendships and if these 2 players have let their team-mates/friends down to play soccer the club is better off without them.
They did it once, they will definitely do it again.
Just my opinion.

Brock_Lesnar (Tyrone) - Posts: 95 - 23/04/2009 13:14:30    266203

So its ok to let their soccer team mates down??

In my view its like a soccer club in clonoe or ballygawley telling a GAA player that they have to play in a meaningless league game instead of a county semi final, because in local soccer the mulhern cup is the equivlant of the senior county championship.

I'v been brought up with the GAA all my life and steeped in its traditions but the fact that someone from outside our club is preventing club men from reresenting it sickens me.

The fact is in our club some players would have been able too get away with it and if your a churchtown man you cant.

No one should prevent anyone from participating in sport. Its ridiculous.

I think your living in the past with your anti soccer attitude, those days are gone!

dergboi (Tyrone) - Posts: 373 - 23/04/2009 15:04:49    266349

Dergboi, i am friendly with most Derg people. You chat alot of nonsense. They were banned temporarily becuase of playing soccer instead of playing against Clogher and they didnt let the manager know until about 3 hours before throw in, which is a bit disrespectful towards their team mates. If they happened to have played for Barrowfield, Dergview..they would have got the same treatment. Not just becuase of Churchtown. Mc Nulty treats everyone the same and he deosnt care about soccer. He was let down and by banning the players was his first thought. He has now changed his mind and the 2 boys are back out playing. They missed 1 game which is not alot and now they are back it.

wiseman8 (Tyrone) - Posts: 288 - 23/04/2009 16:49:36    266489

I am going on exactly what was told to everyone by these players. And you havent a clue who i am mate

dergboi (Tyrone) - Posts: 373 - 23/04/2009 17:18:29    266547

shouldnt be a conflict let them play all sports castlederg arent going to win anything this year, so depriving players of sport is a travesty. players should look at club constitutions as all clubs now should have equality legislation in their constitutions. im sure the sports council wouldnt look to favourably at clubs who discriminate against other sports. time to grow up GAA rule 42 was abandonded so why are we now discriminating against our own in terms of other sports, what next ladies clubs barring players who irish dance.

reddoctor (Tyrone) - Posts: 1241 - 23/04/2009 18:04:49    266631

Dergboi, you asked for peoples opinions but if they dont agree with yours then they are not right! Why ask in the first place??
You say that the players missed A MEANINGLESS LEAGUE GAME. You cant be much of a Castlederg man if you call the second or third league game meaningless. It is the start of the season and every point counts.
With fans like you clubs dont need enemies.
I still think that the manager was right in what he did, especially if the players involved only let him know a couple of hours before throw-in as Wiseman says.

Brock_Lesnar (Tyrone) - Posts: 95 - 23/04/2009 18:29:33    266662

Well they must have over reacted slightly and theres no point you going on and telling what you heard, trust nobody as the saying goes becuase most of what you say you heard is nonsense! I know 100% who you are..Want me to take a guess?

wiseman8 (Tyrone) - Posts: 288 - 23/04/2009 18:49:14    266672

ide pick soccer over tyrone gaelic anyway

supersub02 (Fermanagh) - Posts: 55 - 23/04/2009 21:06:47    266777

funny that supersub when fermanagh gaelic is so brilliant, look how much silverware they have won recently

rayk67 (Tyrone) - Posts: 193 - 23/04/2009 21:15:13    266789

yous are the second biggest county in ireland and all yous have is three all irelands and a few ulsters. clap clap. fermanagh is a very small counry wit around 15 r so clubs so we are hardly going to rake in the silverware.
i take it your favouite fruit would b sour grapes. yaaaaaaaaa

supersub02 (Fermanagh) - Posts: 55 - 23/04/2009 21:23:08    266800

supersub02..i would ask you how many all-irelands yous have...but I think I shud start at how many ulster titles fermanagh have

green_white (Tyrone) - Posts: 55 - 23/04/2009 22:00:07    266833

supersub02, get your facts right. We are not the second biggest county in Ireland. Where did you pull that from? Cork and Galway are both twice the size.

redknight (Tyrone) - Posts: 12 - 23/04/2009 22:39:47    266883

Stay on the bench supersub- By area Tyrone is actually the 7th largest county in Ireland. On what criteria are you basing Tyrone on being 2nd

Mick O Connell (None) - Posts: 1231 - 24/04/2009 09:12:29    267039

Well done churchtown last night, wasnt at the game myself due to work commitments but i heard the derg lads played well

dergboi (Tyrone) - Posts: 373 - 24/04/2009 10:17:23    267104

And wiseman, if those players only give 3 hours notice to the management i retract my previous remarks because i dont fell thats on in any mans book, if i was a manager i'd expect a few days notice at least, and maybe their have been over reactions on all sides of this saga,

dergboi (Tyrone) - Posts: 373 - 24/04/2009 12:24:01    267230

Up the Swifts!

TheMonk (Tyrone) - Posts: 187 - 24/04/2009 15:03:36    267383

every club has that problem, at our club its hurling because they win the the league and championship last year in a small parish an the football has been delt a blow over the last 10 years and now the hurling is strong we are lossing out big time.

john_wayne1 (UK) - Posts: 233 - 24/04/2009 15:47:32    267434

every club has that problem, at our club its hurling because they win the the league and championship last year in a small parish an the football has been delt a blow over the last 10 years and now the hurling is strong we are lossing out big time.

john_wayne1 (UK) - Posts: 233 - 24/04/2009 15:47:35    267436